Posts Tagged ‘Disney’

The Disney Afternoon has not existed since 1999, but fans of the shows that ran in that prestigious time slot are still ones that are remembered to this day by the people who grew up watching them. Many fans have been almost demanding Disney to make new animated shows that were of the quality of the ones found in the Disney Afternoon, but there have not been many results worth mentioning (except for Kim Possible, which was absolutely fantastic), but now we have Phineas and Ferb. If there was ever a show that should have been part of that programming block, it’s this one.

When I first sat down to watch Phineas and Ferb, I was hesitant. I had been burned by shows on the Disney Channel before, but my hesitation had become completely removed the first time I heard the ska theme song and saw penguins rocking out on guitars. I was hooked immediately.

Phineas and Ferb almost always follows the same exact formula for each episode: Phineas and Ferb create a crazy invention and their sister Candace tries to bust them to their mother. While that main storyline is going on, the B story is always their pet platypus, Perry, also known as Agent P, fighting against his nemesis, the villainous Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Whatever Doofenshmirtz builds to get rid of something he hates or would allow him to take over the Tri-State Area ends up destroying or otherwise getting rid of whatever Phineas and Ferb make right before Candace can bust the boys to their mother. Perry always returns to the response of “Oh, there you are Perry” and everyone has a snack. Rinse, wash, and repeat for around 150 episodes.

While the show has a very obvious formula, each episode feels incredibly fresh. Every one of the boy’s inventions are individual ideas that are never repeated (except for one, but that’s because the second time is a musical version of the episode, but that’s something I will touch upon later). In one episode they can be playing with giant Spinning Tops of Death and in another the boys can be fighting giant treehouse robots with their sister and her friend Stacy. Even Doofenshmirtz and Perry’s story lines never stagnate. There’s always a different “-inator” that Doofenshmirtz makes to “fix” his problems with the world along with a new way to capture the intrepid platypus secret agent (my personal favourite is encasing Perry in quick drying chocolate to stop him from stopping the good doctor from melting all of the chocolate in the Tri-State Area in order to sell his own chocolate at exorbitant prices).

Most of what keeps Phineas and Ferb from stagnating is the consistently high quality of the writing. The jokes fly fast and stick leaving the viewer with numerous quotable lines for each 11-minute episode. The writing also follows the Disney standard of animation in that it writes both for kids and the adults who watch television with (or in my case, like) children. Part of this stems from the fact that it was created by Dan Povenmire (a writer for Rocko’s Modern Life and a director of a number of Family Guy episodes in earlier seasons. He also voices Dr. Doofenshmirtz) and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh (who also wrote for Rocko’s Modern Life and voices Major Monogram on Phineas and Ferb). There is definitely a lot of similarities that can be drawn between the styles of humour in Rocko’s Modern Life and Phineas and Ferb, the largest of which would just be how unbelievably bizarre both of the shows can get at times (Giant Floating Baby Head and the Jewish Mexican Cultural Fair are two that immediately spring to mind).

The other major component to the show’s success is the quality of the characters. Phineas and Ferb are two absolutely brilliant children with imaginations that are just demanding to be expressed into new and interesting ideas. What is most interesting about them, but is something that really isn’t focused upon in the show too often (which is a subtlety that I’m glad exists) is that the brothers are actually stepbrothers. Phineas and Candace’s mother and Ferb’s father married when the boys were young, but the relationship between the entire family unit is just like a family where all of the members are blood related. There is never any amount of dysfunction besides the standard sibling rivalry, which leads us to Candace. Her major role is to try to reveal her brother’s adventures to their mother, but this usually gets in the way of her having an actual life of her own, much to her friend Stacy’s chagrin. Their mother, Linda, is eternally patient with her daughter (though she believes that Candace is completely crazy) and wonderfully doting towards Phineas and Ferb. All of this hides (rather poorly) the fact that she used to be an 80’s one-hit-wonder. Their father is not seen all that often earlier in the show, but when he does finally show up, he just looks upon the inventions of the boys with a blissful joy and relative unawareness.

Even Dr. Doofenshmirtz gets some character development, partially from his constant insistence of telling Perry the Platypus the back story that led to the invention of his latest “-inator”, partially from his hatred of his perfect brother Roger, but mostly from the existence of his daughter, Vanessa. Dr. Doofenshmirtz wants nothing more than to get his teenage daughter to love him, but she usually is just hopelessly embarrassed by him. He also is not really that evil (seriously, he runs a company called Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc. that has it’s own jingle), he just goes about solving his problems in a very odd manner.

A musical version of an episode was mentioned earlier, but musical numbers are not just limited to that one episode. Most episodes, in fact, have a song in them written for just that episode; on top of that, they’re exceptionally well done.

The theme song (“Today’s Going to be a Great Day”) for the show is performed by Bowling for Soup and really sets the tone and premise for the show up perfectly (and shows a number of inventions that Phineas and Ferb might do over the course of their summer adventures, and by the end of season 3, all but one of them have been accomplished (it’s actually a running joke within the show)). Most of the songs were written by Dan Povenmire and/or Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, and as such, fit perfectly within the tone of the show. Some of the best songs in the show can be found in the season 1 episode “Dude, We’re Getting the Band Back Together”, which also happens to be one of the best episodes. What is so amazing about the music is that the songs do not necessarily follow a specific musical style, they range from disco, to country, to 80’s rock, to even jazz and ska. There are 3 separate soundtracks for the show and they are well worth a listen even if you aren’t a fan of the show.

Phineas and Ferb is easily one of the most brilliant shows I have seen in ages. It has wonderful writing, well developed characters, fun stories, and amazing music and animation. Drop whatever you are doing and watch this show. 3 seasons of it are available on NetFlix Streaming and you will not be disappointed.

The Cars films are ones that are highly debated as to their quality (or lack thereof) by both Disney fans and the general theatre going public. They are definitely loved by little boys (and mostly by little boys) and it is usually seen by people as Disney’s boy response to the wildly successful Princess line (considering that Pirates never really caught on in that regard, much to my chagrin). The films do not have a wide adult fan base, which makes the fact that this set even got made is rather surprising.

The set just oozes style and class from the outside with it’s metallic red paint job (it’s actually Lightning McQueen’s paint colour) and it’s exceptionally minimalist box design. On two sides, there is the Cars logo, John Lasseter’s signature, and the phrase “Director’s Edition”. On the other two sides there are the logos for the movies and short collection contained within (Cars, Cars 2, and Cars Toons: Mater’s Tall Tales). If someone were to not know what the Cars movies were, the only indication as to what they were getting into would be the clear plastic box on the top of the set containing a John Lassetire die-cast figurine. The set looks awesome when put on a shelf between other DVD’s and Blu-Rays and helps to class up what could just be standard cases lined up next to each other. That being said, the box is rather big, it’s about the size of 11 DVD or Blu-Ray cases and is taller than your standard DVD case, so if you use a shelf made just for DVD’s, it’s going to need to sit somewhere else (I just sit it on top of the shelf with my other oversized or oddly shaped sets).The Director’s Edition opens in a rather bizarre fashion. You actually have to lift off the entire red box (it ends up just being a giant slip cover) to reveal, for lack of a better phrase, a multi-tiered steel looking tower with the John Lassetire sitting on top of it. This tower does not look nearly as good as the slip cover, but it’s still a good looking box. The major problem with the set comes when you take off the top part of the tower. When you take it off, you are hit with a cheap looking checker-board flag, which seems to exist only to hide the cheapness of the disc packaging. The 11 discs in the set are covered by a cheap piece of plastic packaging that doesn’t even lock into place, which arises the question: why is it there? The inclusion of the plastic piece is weird, but what is infuriating is the fact that all of the discs are shoved into a piece of foam. No cases, no sleeves, just foam. For a set that has an MSRP of $119, this is completely unacceptable. I understand that Blu-Ray discs are able to take a higher threshold of scratches before they become unreadable due to the smaller size and the strength of the blue laser, but scratches are still scratches, and the foam will provide less protection than your standard DVD or Blu-Ray case. I’m really thinking about going out and getting either some jewel cases that fit in the box or just getting some cheap paper sleeves in order to keep the discs safe from harm.

The packaging of this set is really upsetting to me. I love the casing, but the way that the discs are held just kills the whole thing for me. I’m glad that I got the set for only $50 through a combined use of a $10 off coupon and a deal from Best Buy that got me an additional $10 off of the $70 price tag at the store. While the packaging leaves quite a bit to be desired, the discs themselves are pretty spectacular. The 11 discs are broken down between 5 discs for Cars 2 (2D and 3D Blu-Ray with a separate special features disc, DVD version of the film, and a digital copy) and Cars and the Cars Toons have 3 discs each (DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital copy). The special features for Cars are slim and are just the special features from the original release back in 2006 and I can’t speak for any special features on the Cars Toon set as I just haven’t watched it yet. The special features for Cars 2 are many and plentiful. Along with the normal making-of featurettes, there is a featurette on a car show that Pixar puts on every year, a short on Cars Land that ends up just being a giant commercial for the upcoming land, and even a version of the races from the film that are just the races and none of the story elements that breaks them up within the film.

Recommending this set is rather difficult, as it’s a great set from a looks perspective and the fact that you get a lot of content for your money, but the packaging really holds me back from saying that you should just go out and buy the set. If you can get it for cheap (like I did) and wouldn’t mind getting some cheap jewel cases or some disc sleeves or you don’t have at least 2 of the movies, then definitely go for it. Otherwise, stay away from this set.

After the advent of home video, the idea of the theatrical rerelease was one that seemed like it was going to go the way of the dodo, and for a number of years, it definitely was. Until the phoenix-like rebirth of the 3D movie, it was something that both did not seem like it would return nor did it seem like there would even be a point. That being said, one can always expect that Disney will be able to find a way to make money off a concept that almost no one else would expect to work (well, at least at first). The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D when it was originally released in 2006, it raked in an extremely surprising amount of money and Disney continued using the 3D medium to get massive amounts of money (they have had 3 3D movies (Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) in the past 2 years that made over a billion dollars worldwide each) and they do not seem to want to give up on the money-making venture that is 3D, with most of their big films being released in both 2D and 3D, but also with brand new 3D conversions of older films that people already know and love. It may sound like I’m bashing the idea of 3D movies (I’m really not as I quite enjoy 3D), I’m more just making a point.

All of that being said, and while I know that 3D is one of the greatest money making schemes in entertainment today, if Disney keeps releasing 3D conversions like the Lion King (which I already talked about) and the new (but not really) conversion of Beauty and the Beast, they will continue to get my money. I’m obviously not going to be reviewing the film here (because that can be found here), but I do feel like there are things to talk about with this conversion.

The actual conversion itself is rather spectacular, but not as good as the one for the Lion King. The 3D is rather good, and it feels very different from the Lion King due to it sometimes looking like a moving storybook (especially in the very beginning and the tracking shot through the forest). Each layer in that scene feels very separate from each other and some people may not like that, but the rest of the film looks really good, and in a lot of scenes, actually makes the film look better. One problem that a lot of 3D films face is that the glasses make the picture look darker, but it’s not quite the case with the 3D conversion of Beauty and the Beast, the colours really pop on the big screen and besides the fact that the version in theatres looks almost like it’s standard definition, it still looks rather gorgeous. The times that the 3D looks the best, though, are when there is rain and snow present, as they take up the very front layer of the film and it makes you feel much more involved in the story unfolding in front of you.

The 3D version of Beauty and the Beast was actually supposed to come out on Valentines Day of 2010 (which made me actually look forward to that day for the first time in a number of years), but the release was inexplicably dropped, despite the fact that the conversion was already complete. Valentines Day 2010 came and went without an enchanted castle and it was announced that it would come out the following Valentines Day. That ended up being false again and Disney never spoke of it again. Beauty and the Beast got a double-dip Blu-Ray release when the Diamond Edition Blu-Ray was brought out again, but with a new disc that included the 3D version of the film and a digital-copy on October 4th, 2011 along with the new Diamond Edition of the Lion King. After that, it did not seem that we would ever see Beauty and the Beast in theatres again, until the Lion King was rereleased in 3D and raked in money hand over fist in the box office. It was announced that it would be coming out along with Finding Nemo 3D in September 2012, Monsters, Inc. 3D in January 2013, and the Little Mermaid 3D in September 2013.

I’m still holding out for Aladdin 3D in 2014, but we will have to wait and see if that comes to pass.

The real reason that Beauty and the Beast 3D is noteworthy is the existence of Tangled Ever After, a new short that premiered before the film. The story is, obviously, a sequel to Tangled where Rapunzel and Flynn tie the not, but not without Pascal and Maximus losing the rings and are forced to run all around the kingdom trying to get them back before it’s time to declare them man and wife. The cast from the movie returns, as does the vast majority of the cast of characters, for the genuinely hilarious short, but something I am concerned about is how the short is going to be released to the public. The 3D version of Beauty and the Beast is already out and it does not have Tangled Ever After on it, and the short is only around 6 minutes long, so it wouldn’t get it’s own release.

I would highly suggest going to see Beauty and the Beast 3D even if you don’t like 3D movies. Being able to see Beauty and the Beast on the big screen is a real treat that should not be missed, and Tangled Ever After is really just the icing on the cake.

Disney announced one of the most perplexing pieces of news this week completely out of the blue (ha ha, puns): Avatar is coming to the Animal Kingdom as a new land, construction will start in 2013 and is set to open sometime in 2016. That’s it, that’s all they announced. There was also the normal PR statements like:

“James Cameron is a groundbreaking filmmaker and gifted storyteller who shares our passion for creativity, technological innovation and delivering the best experience possible,” said Robert A. Iger, President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. “With this agreement, we have the extraordinary opportunity to combine James’ talent and vision with the imagination and expertise of Disney.”

My problem with this statement is that unless the movie is rated R, James Cameron’s movies are overly long and kind of suck. What movies do people think about when they’re talking about James Cameron? Terminator and Aliens, not Avatar and Titanic.

“AVATAR created a world which audiences can discover again and again and now, through this incredible partnership with Disney, we’ll be able to bring Pandora to life like never before. With two new AVATAR films currently in development, we’ll have even more locations, characters and stories to explore,” said James Cameron. “I’m chomping at the bit to start work with Disney’s legendary Imagineers to bring our AVATAR universe to life. Our goal is to go beyond current boundaries of technical innovation and experiential storytelling, and give park goers the chance to see, hear, and touch the world of AVATAR with an unprecedented sense of reality.”

Ugh, a trilogy of Avatar films? Maybe they’ll actually have stories that are worth telling.

“AVATAR is a uniquely powerful franchise that has global appeal with audiences of all ages. Its spectacular settings, intriguing characters, imaginative creatures, and strong themes of family and loyalty make it a perfect fit for Disney,” said Thomas O. Staggs, Chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “We can’t wait to give our guests the ability to journey to Pandora and explore the incredible immersive world of AVATAR in person.”

Spectacular settings? Yes. Imaginative creatures? Yes. Strong themes of family and loyalty? Yes. Intriguing characters? WRONG. The characters were one dimensional stereotypes that were completely uninteresting to watch on film and only made the story seem even less interesting than it already was. The Avatar land is very obviously Disney’s response to the runaway success of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but I am dubious as to the staying power of Avatar compared to the staying power of Harry Potter.

I really did not like Avatar. I thought it was a pretty movie that was completely vapid when it came to characters and story. All of this was made worse by the fact that it was about an hour to an hour and a half too long. That being said, I am cautiously optimistic about this new Avatar/Animal Kingdom project. The world building in Avatar was very impressive and I would love to explore the world of Pandora, just as long as they keep the story and characters from the movie out of it. Avatar just does not have a strong enough story to hold up a single attraction let alone an entire land. Besides, a Disney park is no place for any form of military industrial complex.

The possibilities of this land is what interests me the most. In 2010, Disney patented a technology that would allow puppeteers and their puppets the ability to “fly” with their puppets and the obvious implementation of this is to have the dragon things and the Na’vi in some sort of show. The world of Avatar is a very well designed one and they could do some very cool things with the Living Character Initiative for interacting with animals if Disney were to put the necessary money into it (and the land is supposedly going to cost 200 million dollars) and the attractions could end up being very cool if they stay away from the story of the movie. The world of Pandora could work inside Animal Kingdom if they handle it correctly, and I really hope they do. Animal Kingdom was supposed to be about both real life animals and beasts of fantasy, the fantasy inspired Beastly Kingdom land seems to be completely gone at this point, so Pandora could fill in that role (actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if they use some of the plans for Beastly Kingdom for Pandora).

This is the last part of my adventure that will occur in the Disneyland park for a while, but not the last part of the Adventures of a Lost Boy in Disneyland, and like last week’s adventure, this one is a return of a beloved classic.

The original Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln opened with it’s a small world and the Carousel of Progress at the 1964-1965 Worlds Fair in New York and was moved to Disneyland when the fair closed in 1965 where it sat in the Main Street Opera house until 1973 when it was replaced by the Walt Disney Story. Guests did not like seeing Mr. Lincoln go away, so in 1975 the Walt Disney Story re-opened as the Walt Disney Story Featuring Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. The show remained the same until 1984 when a new Lincoln audio-animatronic was created that was more lifelike and the show was changed around a little bit to add some content from the then relatively new American Adventure show at EPCOT Center.

The show continued to be a popular one until the late 90’s/early 2000’s, so Disney decided to completely overhaul the attraction and make it fresh. Unfortunately, the team that worked on this new version of Great Moments must have looked at what happened to Journey into Imagination when it got it’s overhaul and thought that it was a great idea. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln opened with a brand new binaural audio section at the beginning and shifted it’s focus to the Civil War. This sounds okay on paper, right? Sure it does, until you realize that the show should be renamed Great Moments Getting a Shave. The show created a fictional character that guests followed as he developed pictures, got a shave, went to war, left war because he got shot, and went to see Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address. This version of the attraction focused more on the then relatively new binaural audio technology and less on Lincoln and his role in the show was cut down drastically due to the shorter length of the Gettysburg Address compared to Lincoln’s old speech. Needless to say, people were not pleased.

Luckily, this version of the attraction did not last long. When Disneyland celebrated it’s 50th Anniversary in 2005, the Main Street Opera House opened it’s first completely new show since 1973: Disneyland: the First 50 Magical Years. This was a great attraction (and still mostly exists there today) and replaced the Lincoln show with a short documentary on Disneyland hosted by Steve Martin and Donald Duck. The show was interesting, the movie was funny, and both the show and the movie were educational. In 2009, Lincoln returned to the Opera House in a new version of the attraction called the Disneyland Story Presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

I had never seen Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln as the first time I came to Disneyland was in 2004 when the attraction was being converted over to the Disneyland: the First 50 Magical Years, but I must say that I am glad that my first experience with Mr. Lincoln was this one. This new version of the attraction is a bit of a combination of the 1984 and 2001 version. It features the same script for Lincoln as was in the 1984 version as well as some of the biography found in that show (albeit a shorter version than what could be seen in 1984) and also featured some of the Civil War content from the 2001 version, but none of the stupid binaural audio. The real star of the show here is the brand new Lincoln audio-animatronic. The new figure runs all on electronics rather than the hydraulics in the old figure and has some of the smoothest movements out of any of the audio-animatronics I have ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot) and can be one of the most scarily expressive ones in existence. This new Lincoln is obscenely life-like and managed to somehow stay out of the uncanny-valley so I was already geeking out about the animatronic when I first saw it, but when he stood up I freaking lost it. The Lincoln animatronic is absolutely amazing and I am very excited to see how this new breed of audio-animatronic will be used in the future.

On September 16th, the Lion King was re-released to theatres for a limited 2 week run in a brand new 3D version. The question is whether or not said re-release is worth it, and that answer is a very resounding yes.

The 3D conversion on the Lion King has already been talked about on the blog before, and I am very happy to report that Disney did the 3D conversion right. It’s never distracting and actually more serves to bring you even more into the story than you ever have been before. The characters have this added dimensionality to them that makes them look almost like they were rendered in CG due to the added weight and depth the 3D conversion adds. This actually serves to make the film look better than it ever has (and this is not due to an HD conversion, the theatre I saw the 3D version in was very obviously showing it in standard definition). The “Circle of Life” is really the scene that stood out the most with 3D due to the constant changing of scenery and the part where Zazu flies up to Pride Rock. It really showed off almost everything that could be done with the 3D conversion and got everyone excited for the rest of the film. The Stampede scene and the final battle also looked amazing in 3D.

It should also be noted that the 3D version of the Lion King is the original theatrical version, not the extended one with the “Morning Report”.

Unfortunately, our theatre going experience wasn’t exactly the best. I live in a college town for most of the year and completely forgot that families also live in said college town, so when we went into the theatre, there were kids freaking everywhere. I love kids, but not in movie theatres. Their parents were talking to them the entire time, saying things like “Who’s that” and “look at the elephant!” Seriously parents, treat your children like equals rather than subordinates, they will come out much better in the end. That being put aside, the sound was awful in the theatre. There sounded like there was a speaker that wasn’t working and there wasn’t even any bass in the theatre. It was very obvious and actually more distracting than the 3D ever was.

All in all, go see the Lion King in 3D. It really shows off the fact that 3D conversions can work when they are actually done well and only serves to make me want to buy the 3D version when it comes out on Blu-Ray, because I know that it will look even better in HD.

Anyone else out there think that the Lion King 3D is going to take the number one spot at the box office this weekend? It really wouldn’t surprise me if it does.

In the continuing trend of old attractions being reborn, Captain EO has returned to the Magic Eye Theatre at Disneyland (along with EPCOT, Disneyland Paris, and Tokyo Disneyland, all four of which replaced Honey… I Shrunk the Audience). The attraction originally ran at the Magic Eye Theatre from 1986 to 1997, was replaced by Honey… I Shrunk the Audience, and then was reopened after the unfortunate death of Michael Jackson as the Captain EO Tribute.

The show ran at EPCOT from 1986 to 1994, and to be quite honest I don’t think I had seen it during that original run. My family had been to Walt Disney World 2 or 3 times by that point, but my mom was never a fan of Michael Jackson (I know it’s a travesty) so we never would have gone in and saw it. I, on the other hand, have loved his music ever since I heard it on an Alvin and the Chipmunks VHS that had Alvin animated into part of the “Beat It” music video and continue to love it to this day, even going so far as to get the DJ at my prom to play “Thriller” and got a large group of my friends to dance what parts of the dance we knew while being watched by the rest of the senior class.

Captain EO follows the story of the infamous Captain Eo (Michael Jackson) and his ragtag crew of aliens and robots as they deliver a peace offering to a hostile alien planet. It, of course, goes wrong and Eo and his crew must use the power of music to save the planet.

Captain EO is a very 80’s show past the point of hilarity. At one point the robot crew members transform into instruments, and when I say transform, I don’t mean in a somewhat realistic (or at least plausible) fashion like in Transformers, I’m talking about a Getter Robo style transformation in which they just kind of mold themselves into whatever they need to be. Captain Eo also has a superpower, he has the ability to fire beams out of his hands that can turn anyone into an 80’s background dancer and instantly teach them the dance for the song at hand. He can also fly for some reason. It is exceptionally silly, but that is one of the reasons that I love it so much.

The film features the Michael Jackson songs “Change the World” and “Another Part of Me” which were not available until very recently. The source audio for the entire show (including those songs) can be found for free download here.

The movie was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who also directed the Thriller music video (and some movies that no one has ever heard of like the Godfather and Apocalypse Now) and was produced by George Lucas. Industrial Light and Magic did the special effects, which were amazing for the time and still manage to hold up pretty well (seriously, that is the magic of practical effects, they tend to not look nearly as dated as CG). The movie is very enjoyable and exceptionally well made, but I have a few problems with the theatre itself. At Disneyland, they didn’t do anything to change the actual theatre for the tribute, so the odd shaped screen is still there and they use the moveable theatre technology that is used in Honey… I Shrunk the Audience to make the theatre “dance” to the beat (which is really distracting).

Captain EO is a very fun attraction that is a throwback to a very different time and to be quite honest, I would very much prefer it to remain in the Magic Eye Theatre rather than bring back Honey… I Shrunk the Audience.